“ TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” — L u c re tiu s VOL. 4. SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, JULY 5, E. M. 300 (1900.) Kevin«* *! for the T orch of Reason. NO. 26. place one above the other is a mon sis respecting the origin of organic ilarly caused. Here and there are Duty. strous presumption which destroys beings. pointed out sedimentary deposits • • • • the unity of the universe.”—[Force now slowly taking place. At this HOU, whose nam e is /»lazoned forth and Matter. The hypothesis of evolution has place, it is proved that a shore has On our b a n n e r’s gleam ing fold, the support of some evidence, in been encroached on by the sea to a Freedom ! thou whose saered w orth Never y e t has half l>een told, stead of being absolutely unsup considerable extent within recorded O ften have we sung of thee, Evolution vs. Special Creation. ported by evidence. Though the times; and at another place, an D ear to us as d e a r can be. facts at present assignable in direct estuary is known to have become B ut today we sing of one O lder, graver far, th a n th o u ; proof that by progressive modifica shallower within the space of some BY IIEBRERT SPENCER. W ith th e seal of tim e begun tions, races of organisms that are generations. In one region a gen S tam ped upon h e r awful brow ; Freedom , la te st born of tim e, apparently distinct may result from eral upheaval is going on at the HE belief in special creations antecedent races, are not sufficient; K now est thou h er form sublim e? rate of a few feet in a century; of organisms, is a belief that yet there are numerous facts of the She is D u ty : in h e r hand while in another region occasional Is a sceptre, reaso n -b ro u g h t; arose among men during the order required. It has been shown H ere th e accent of com m and, era of profoundest darkness; and it beyond all question that unlike earthquakes are shown to cause H ers th e ever p resen t o u g h t ; slight variations of level. H ers upon us all to lay belongs to a family of beliefs which nesses of structure gradually arise Appreciable amounts of denuda H eavier burdens every day. have nearly all died out as enlight among descendants from the same tion by water are risible in some B ut h er bondage is so s w e e t! enment has increased. It is with stock. We find that there is going And h e r b urdens m ake us strong ; out a solitary established fact on on a modifying process of the kind localities; and in other localities W ings th ey seem to weary feet, glaciers are detected in the act of L au g h ter to our lips and song: which to stand; and when the at alleged as the source of specific F reedom , m ake us free to speed tempt is made to put it into defin differences; a process which, though grinding down the rocky surfaces W heresoever she m ay lead. over which they glide. But *the ite shape in the mind, it turns out slow in its action, does, in time, if changes thus instanced, are infini to be only a pseud-idea. This mere the circumstances demand it, pro Spirit (M ind) Dependent on verbal hypothesis, which men idly duce conspicuous changes—a pro tesimal comparedwith the aggregate M atter. of changes to which the Earth’s accept as a real or thinkable hypo cess which, to all appearance, would crust testifies, even in its still ex thesis, is of the same nature as produce in the millions of years, BY PROF. LUDWIG BUCHNER, M. D. tant systems of strata. If, then, would be one, based on a day’s ob and under the great varieties of from the small changes now being HE opinion that spirit has servation of human life, that each conditions which geological records wrought on the Earth’s crust by created matter,” says the man and woman was specially cre imp\v, any amount of change. natural agencies, we may legiti anonymous author of the ated—an hypothesis not suggested Although comparatively little mately conclude that by such Elements of Social Science, “is an by evidence, but by lack of evi attention has been paid to the mat natural agencies acting through utterly groundless hypothesis, dence—an hypothesis which formu ter until recent times, the evidence vast epochs, all the structural com founded on no shadow of proof. lates absolute ignorance into a already collected shows that there plexities of the Earth’s crust have There is not the smallest analogy semblance of positive knowledge. take place in successive generations, been produced; may we not from in it-s favor, and it would appear as Further, we see that this hypothe alterations of structure quite as the small known modifications pro if human reason were yet in its sis, wholly without support, essen marked as those which, in success duced in races of organisms by childhood. In how much is it the tially inconceivable, and thus fail ive short intervals, arise in a de natural agencies, similarly infer least more conceivable that spirit ing to satisfy men’s intellectual veloping embryo—nay, often much that from natural agencies have should be infinite than that matter need of an interpretation, fails also more marked; since, besides differ slowly arisen all those structural should be? It is indeed much to satisfy their moral sentiment. It ences due to changes in the relative complexities which we see in them? more, infinitely more inconceivable; is quite incon.- istent with those con sizes of parts, there sometimes arise The hypothesis of Evolution then, for while we can find no possible ceptions of the oivine nature which differences due to additions and has direct support from facts which, reason why matter should not be they profess to entertain. If infinite suppressions of parts. The struc though small in amount, are of the infinite, but are forced to that con- power was to be demonstrated, then, tural modification proved to have kind required; and the proportion elusion by the study of nature, we either by the special creation of taken place since organisms have which these facts bear to the con can, on the other hand, find no every individual, or by the produc been observed, is not less than the clusion drawn, seems as great as is possible reason in nature why tion of species after a method akin hypothesis demands—bearsasgreat the proportion between facts and spirit should be infinite, but are to that in which individuals are a ratio to this brief period, as the conclusion which, in another case, forced to the conclusion that it is produced, it would be better demon total amount of structural change produces acceptance of the conclu not infinite. Spirit is a manifesta strated than by the use of the two seen in the evolution of a complex sion.—[Synthetic Philosophy. tion of life, and all life, by the law methods which the hypothesis as« organism out of a simple germ, of its being, is subject to change sûmes to be necessary. And if bears to that vast period during The Music of the Future. • - and therefore to death. Spirit is infinite goodness was to be demon which living forms have existed on BY R. G. INGERSOLL. perishable, for it is absolutely indi strated, then, not oidy do the pro he Earth. visions of organic structure, if they visible from the perishable forms We have, indeed, much the same are especially devised, fail to de NFIDELS have opposed the of matter, and it is a wholly natural kind and quantity of direct evidence monstrate it; but there is an Bible not on account of the force, not foreign to other natural that all organic beings have grad good things in it, but on ac forces, but indivisibly bound up enormous mass of them which im ually arisen through the actions of with all other in mutual interde ply malevolence rather than be natural causes, which we have that count of the bad, and Christians pendence. The spirit which de nevolence. all the structural complexities of the have upheld it not on account of Thus, however regarded, the hy Earth’s crust have arisen through the bad, but on account of the good. signs in man is indissolubly bouud up with a living organized brain. pothesis of special creations turns the actions of natural causes. It And, unfortunately, these Christ To maintain that the desiguer of out to be worthless—worthless by may, I think, be fairly said that ians have imagined that the doc the cosmical plan is a pure spirit, its derivation; worthless in its in between the known modifications trine of inspiration must be upheld is to argue against all analogy. trinsic incoherence; worthless as undergone by organisms, and the in order that the good things in the According to our experience, spirit absolutely without evidence; worth totality of modifications displayed Bible might be preserved. In this is, without exception, found in con less as not supplying an intellectual in their structures, there is no great way they have only succeeded in junction with a brain, and never need; worthless as not satisfying a er disproportion than between the sanctifying the infamous. Throw creates matter. To separate mat moral want. We must therefore geological changes which have been away this doctrine of inspiration, ter from spirit, bodies from souls, consider it as counting for nothing, witnessed, and the totality of geo and the Bible will be more power js to destroy the truth of nature; to in opposition to any other hypothe logical changes supposed to be sim ful for good and far less for evil. T T T